Managing Healthcare Delivery

While delivering patient care has always been a primary goal of healthcare organizations, financial outcomes have long been the metric by which success is measured. Increasingly, however, healthcare leaders are being held accountable for both medical and financial outcomes. As a result, healthcare executives and providers must understand the determinants of organizational effectiveness—strategy, finance, operations, and leadership.

This leadership development program provides a transformational learning experience that goes far beyond the traditional debate over healthcare costs. In this global offering, you will examine the critical processes required to develop and implement a superior healthcare delivery system.

What You Can Expect

Taking place in Boston, a US hub for healthcare, this intensive three-week program, delivered over a nine-month period, incorporates an array of international, real-world case studies, classroom exercises, and action learning. You will build new skills in strategy, finance, operations, and leadership, while acquiring global perspectives and models for care delivery innovation.

Your Course of Study

The program equips you with knowledge, tools, and models structured around three main concepts—designing your organization from the ground up, managing performance, and improving and innovating over time.

Who Is Right for the Program

This program is designed for clinical and nonclinical executives in healthcare delivery organizations. HBS encourages multiple individuals from the same organization to attend.

About the HBS Healthcare Initiative

Established in 2005, the HBS Healthcare Initiative (HCI) serves as a gateway for healthcare research, educational programs, and collaboration. Priority is placed on applying the best principles of management, entrepreneurship, and innovation to help reshape this complex industry. The HCI engages with faculty, students, alumni, Executive Education participants, and many other parts of Harvard University. Through this powerful alliance of key stakeholders, HBS aims to educate leaders who will make an immediate and lasting impact by developing business models that offer the hope of improved outcomes, reduced costs, and enhanced services. For more information about related activities at Harvard Business School, please visit the Healthcare Initiative website.

A limited number of needs-based partial scholarships are available to be applied toward program tuition. After applying and being accepted to the program, participants may send a brief statement of need for review by the financial aid committee. For more information, please contact the HBS Healthcare Initiative at healthcare_initiative@hbs.edu or 1-617-495-6126.

What You Can Expect

Improve Your Organization's Performance and Outcomes

Costs, quality of care, and patient and provider satisfaction rates are all under increased scrutiny as hospitals and healthcare delivery networks strive to improve financial as well as medical performance. These added pressures have heightened the call for a new kind of leader—one that can deliver effective care in a cost-efficient, integrated manner. In this intensive program, you will examine innovative delivery strategies that are designed to improve coordination of services, enhance the value of patient care, and boost medical and economic outcomes. At the same time, you will build the leadership competencies required to drive change, manage people, provide optimal care, and deliver results across your organization.

Taking Your Capabilities to the Next Level

This powerful program is led by Dr. Richard Bohmer, a distinguished physician and HBS professor, along with an impressive cadre of HBS faculty and guest instructors—recognized experts, thought leaders, case study writers, and published authors. You will acquire the management frameworks and leadership strategies required to improve patient care, organizational performance, and financial outcomes in your healthcare delivery system. With the focus on healthcare operations, strategic positioning, and financial reporting and controls, you will explore negotiation, team building, organizational design, innovation, leadership, and growth. By evaluating these issues from multiple perspectives, you will learn how many of the world's leading healthcare organizations improve performance.

The key objectives of the program include:

"This program changed my thinking. Not only did I gain a broader, more global perspective on healthcare delivery, but I was also able to translate important concepts—such as strategy, process alignment, and outcome measurement—into practical tools that add value to our day-to-day operations."
Hugo L. Moreno [Chief Executive Officer], Salud Digna Para Todos IAP, Mexico

Your Course of Study

HBS faculty created this curriculum to help healthcare delivery leaders manage patient care and improve performance within their organizations. In addition to classroom discussions and team-oriented projects, the leadership training program utilizes the renowned case method pioneered by HBS faculty, an active learning model that teaches you how to assess, analyze, and act upon complex management issues. Rooted in real-life experiences, the case method serves to develop your analytical skills, enhance your judgment, and develop your leadership potential.

Complementing the core curriculum are guest lectures by industry leaders, panel discussions, online tutorials, webcasts and webinars, small group exercises, and project work—all designed to expand upon the case studies and broaden your learning experience.

The global curriculum is composed of three one-week modules as well as intersession project work. Each module builds on and applies key themes from previous modules.

Module 1: Design

Gain the skills to design and lead a competitive healthcare delivery organization.

Focused on designing flexible, high-performance infrastructures, this module covers a range of topics, including operational design, teamwork, strategy, and leadership.

Operational Design – Analyzing and designing effective operational models, teams, and delivery strategies; understanding the impact of operations, culture, and leadership on safety and errors

Teamwork – Facilitating and managing physician-hospital relationships; exploring the criteria for high-performing teams—a shared understanding of interpersonal dynamics and cognitive biases, as well as a climate that promotes collective learning and collaborative problem solving

Strategy – Improving performance through learning and leadership; examining frameworks for developing and evaluating healthcare delivery strategies

Leadership – Analyzing the complexities associated with leading clinical organizations; assessing the roles of effective leaders—mentoring, monitoring, directing, and inspiring; emphasizing clinicians as managers and leaders

Module 2: Perform

Acquire the management tools and techniques to achieve high performance.

Centered on key management tools and techniques, this module explores the fundamentals of finance and accounting, as well as the latest approaches to leadership, negotiation, and operations management.

Finance and Accounting – Applying accounting controls and capital budgeting processes; assessing the financial health of a department or organization; managing financial and decision-making processes; designing meaningful incentive programs; writing a business plan

Service Excellence – Discovering the key tenets of service excellence

Negotiation – Learning the key elements of negotiation and strategic decision making; crafting deals and handling complex negotiations; managing the tension between collectively creating value and individually claiming value

Organizational Behavior – Managing difficult personalities; facilitating team decision making processes; developing and implementing incentives that drive results

Module 3: Innovate

Cultivate a climate that fosters innovation.

Focused on developing an innovative and flexible learning organization, this module examines how to promote a culture of entrepreneurship.

Learning Organizations – Capturing innovation, applying lessons, and exploring effective ways of sharing knowledge across an organization; learning from past successes and failures; improving performance through learning and leadership

Performance – Creating systematic processes that drive performance

Entrepreneurship – Developing a learning culture that rewards innovation

Between Modules

Apply and test key concepts in your organization.

Between each module, you will have the opportunity to apply and test key concepts through a variety of technology-enhanced activities and projects that are directly relevant to you and your organization.

Between Modules 1 and 2 –
Working at your own pace, you will complete online accounting tutorials and participate in webinars to gauge the impact of various management levers on efficiency, quality, and safety.

You also will perform an organizational assessment designed to get you thinking critically about your organization's strategy and value proposition and its alignment with both the external competitive and regulatory environment as well as the internal "operating system." The internal operating system includes the physical environment, people, technology, and policies.

Between Modules 2 and 3 –
Incorporating the program's key concepts for driving tangible results, you will develop a business plan for a new or existing service within your organization. While the focus of the business plan is of your own choosing, it should represent an issue that is important to your organization. You will have the opportunity to receive feedback on your plan from your peers and can work in a group if you choose.

"This program transformed my way of thinking. By learning from some of the top business and healthcare leaders in the world and debating today's healthcare challenges with my colleagues, I was able to contemplate innovative solutions to care delivery."
Susan Grant [Chief Nursing Officer/Associate Dean for Clinical Partnerships], Emory Healthcare/Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, U.S.

Who Is Right for the Program

The program is designed for individuals with more than ten years of experience in either clinical or nonclinical roles.

Participants may include physician chiefs and subspecialty chiefs; nursing officers; leaders from physician network organizations, as well as senior vice presidents, vice presidents, and executives across a range of functional areas in healthcare delivery organizations.

Throughout the nine-month program, you will spend substantial time developing and applying strategies that address your organization's challenges around managing performance and innovation. With that in mind, HBS encourages multiple attendees from the same organization to apply; individuals also are invited to apply.

A limited number of scholarships are available for the Managing Healthcare Delivery program. Preference will be given to groups of three or more from a single organization. For more scholarship information, please contact Healthcare_Initiative@hbs.edu.

"This program provided me with global perspectives. The various discussions illuminated scenarios, challenges, solutions, and opportunities that are relevant to my organization. I found the small group discussions to be particularly valuable as we exchanged ideas and challenged each other's assumptions about different management principles."
Musaed Abrahams [HIV Training Coordinator], Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), Cape Town, South Africa

Meet the Program Faculty

Like all Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, Managing Healthcare Delivery is developed and taught by a core faculty of HBS professors. Our faculty members are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors.

Through publishing, consulting, and teaching, they leverage their business expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of management. The result is a teaching team that exposes participants to multiple perspectives, challenging their thinking and encouraging new practices that result in superior business leadership. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.

Richard M.J. Bohmer, Professor of Management Practice. Member of the Technology and Operations Management Unit; member of the Healthcare Initiative; faculty chair of "Managing Healthcare Delivery" and faculty cochair of "Leading High-Performance Healthcare Organizations."

James J. Dowd, Jr., Senior Fellow, Managing Director, Executive Education.

Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management. Cohead of the Technology and Operations Management Unit; and faculty cochair of "Leading High-Performance Healthcare Organizations."

Frances X. Frei, UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management. Chair, MBA required curriculum; member of the Technology and Operations Management Unit; and faculty cochair of "Achieving Breakthrough Service."

William W. George, Professor of Management Practice. Member of the Organizational Behavior Unit; and faculty chair of "Authentic Leadership Development."

Richard G. Hamermesh, MBA Class of 1961 Professor of Management Practice. Faculty cochair of the HBS Healthcare Initiative; and member of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit.

Regina E. Herzlinger, Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration. Member of the General Management Unit.

Robert F. Higgins, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. Member of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit.

Robert S. Huckman, Associate Professor of Business Administration. Faculty cochair of the HBS Healthcare Initiative; and member of the Technology and Operations Management Unit.

V.G. Narayanan, Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration. Head of the Accounting and Management Unit; and faculty chair of "Compensation Committees: New Challenges, New Solutions."

Michael E. Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor. Member of the Strategy Unit; and director of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. Faculty cochair of "Value Measurement for Health Care."

V. Kasturi Rangan, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing. Cochair of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative; member of the Marketing Unit; faculty chair of "Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to Create Business and Social Value" and faculty cochair of "Building Businesses in Emerging Markets."

W. Earl Sasser, Baker Foundation Professor. Member of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit; faculty chair of "Leadership Best Practices," "Leadership for Senior Executives," and the "Program for Leadership Development."

Willy C. Shih, Professor of Management Practice. Member of the Technology and Operations Management Unit; and faculty cochair of "Managing Breakthroughs: From Science to Enterprise."

Robert L. Simons, Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Accounting and Management Unit; and faculty cochair of "Driving Corporate Performance: Aligning Scorecards, Systems, and Strategy."

Anita L. Tucker, Associate Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Technology and Operations Management Unit.

Michael A. Wheeler, MBA Class of 1952 Professor of Management Practice. Member of the Negotiation, Organizations, and Markets Unit; and faculty cochair of "Strategic Negotiations: Dealmaking for the Long Term."

Guest Faculty Has Included:

Robert D. Austin, Professor, Copenhagen Business School. Faculty cochair of "Delivering Information Services."

Susan M. Grant, MS, RN, CNAA, BC, Interim Dean of Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer of Emory Healthcare.

John D. Halamka, MD, MS, Chief Information Officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer and Dean for Technology at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network (NEHEN), Chief Executive Officer of MA-SHARE (the Regional Health Information Organization), Chair of the US Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), and a practicing emergency physician.

Gary B. Kaplan, MD, Director, Mental Health Service of VA Boston Healthcare System; Chief, Psychiatry Service of VA Boston Healthcare System; and Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology, and Psychology at Boston University School of Medicine.

Thomas H. Lee, MD, MSC, Network President of Partners Healthcare System; Chief Executive Officer of Partners Community HealthCare, Inc.; and a practicing internist and cardiologist.

Gregg S. Meyer, MD, MSC, Senior Vice President for Quality and Safety at Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization and a practicing physician.

Luciano Ravera, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning at Humanitas Mirasole SpA.

Peter L. Slavin, MD, President of Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.

"I would highly recommend this program to all senior-level executives of care delivery organizations for the opportunities it provides in connecting with other leaders of care delivery—and for the breadth and depth of knowledge it imparts through effective classroom and group-based learning methods. No other executive program provides better value in understanding health care delivery management."
Dr. Mohanraj Dhanagopal [Health Data Analyst], Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar

A limited number of needs-based partial scholarships are available to be applied towards program tuition. After applying and being accepted to the program, participants may send a brief statement of need for review by the financial aid committee. For more information, please contact the HBS Healthcare Initiative at healthcare_initiative@hbs.edu or 1-617-495-6126.

Admissions

Because a diverse participant mix is an important part of every HBS Executive Education program, we look for candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds to enrich the learning experience.

Fees, Payments, and Cancellations

The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.

No payment is necessary until you have been accepted into an HBS Executive Education program. After admission notification, we will send you an invoice via email; payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date. If admission is within 30 days prior to the start of the program, payment is due upon receipt of the invoice. Payment is required prior to the program start date. We accept payment by company check, bank wire transfer, or credit card (American Express, MasterCard, Visa). Details are included on the program invoice.

If you need to cancel or defer participation, you must submit your request in writing more than 30 days before the start of the program to receive a full refund. Due to program demand and the volume of preprogram preparation, cancellations or deferrals received 14 to 30 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of one-half of the program fee. Requests received within 14 days are subject to full payment.

Requirements

Although there are no formal educational requirements, admission is a selective process based on professional achievement and organizational responsibility. We look for professionals who have demonstrated business talent and leadership potential.

HBS Executive Education programs enrich both participants and their sponsoring organizations, and require full commitment from each party. While participants devote time and intellect to the learning experience, sponsoring organizations agree to relieve individuals of their work responsibilities during the program.

Language Proficiency

We deliberately design our programs to encourage individual growth and to foster productive interaction among participants. For that reason, proficiency in written and spoken English is essential. If English is your second language, or if you have less than one year's experience working in an English-speaking environment, HBS requires a brief statement documenting proficiency in English-language skills, both conversational and written. This may include a list of the English-language certification programs that you have completed; the degrees you have earned at English-speaking colleges and universities; or the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam. The Admissions Committee also may request a telephone interview.

Team Attendance

This program is appropriate for individuals as well as teams of executives from the same organization. When colleagues attend a program together, the organization benefits from their shared knowledge and common vision. This, in turn, enables participants to enhance their ability to pursue business goals as a team, effect critical transformations, and transfer knowledge. HBS client service specialists are available to advise on optimal team composition. The application for each team member must be received before the team's materials are reviewed by the Admissions Committee.

Application Process

Program participants must be nominated and sponsored by their current employer. HBS must receive your application and all required documents in order to prepare the application for review by the Admissions Committee.

To apply, you may use our online form or download an application. You also may request a brochure by mail.

If you submit your application online, we will promptly acknowledge receipt of your submission via email. In the unlikely event that an email acknowledgment is not received, please contact the Admissions Committee by email: exed_admissions@hbs.edu, phone: +1-617-495-6226, or fax: +1-617-496-1731.

If you choose to submit a printed application, be sure to type or print legibly and sign your application. Send the application to the address or fax number listed on the form. Mailed or faxed applications are processed and acknowledged promptly upon receipt via email.

Complete Your Application

Please answer all questions thoroughly—the Admissions Committee will only consider completed applications. After reviewing your application and making the necessary edits or corrections, print or copy the application for your records.

The application for each team member must be received before the team's materials are reviewed by the Admissions Committee.

Meet the Deadlines

We request applications at least four weeks in advance of the program start date. Early application does not guarantee admission. Programs often fill to capacity, so early application is recommended.

Notification of Acceptance

We acknowledge receipt of all applications and maintain all application information in strict confidentiality.

To optimize the learning experience and maximize the exchange of ideas, the Admissions Committee selects a class that balances each participant's experience, the scope of his or her current responsibilities, and the type of organization.

The Admissions Committee begins reviewing applications four months before the start date, and qualified candidates are admitted on a rolling, space-available basis. Once the review process has begun, applicants are notified within three weeks via email regarding Admissions Committee decisions. If your application is received within three weeks of the program's start date, the Admissions Committee will notify you of their decision as soon as possible.

Need help?

For further assistance, contact our client service specialists at: 1-800-427-5577 (outside the U.S., dial +1-617-495-6555).